Child Soldiers In The United States

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Child soldiers are a rapidly evolving problem throughout the globe. The United Nations (UN) has tried to enforce many different policies, they are still trying to make child soldiers illegal. The definition of child soldiers itself is a very simple concept to grasp, but the evidence behind it is the more important part. The UN has defined child soldiers as ¨A child associated with an armed force or armed group refers to any person below 18 years of age who is, or who has been, recruited or used by an armed force or armed group in any capacity.¨(Children, Not Soldiers) Not all children are forced to join armed forces. Some reasons that children may join armed forces are of the following, to defend their community, because of feelings of revenge or the biggest one is to escape poverty. Escaping poverty is a very big part of child soldiers because of the factors behind it. …show more content…

They can either be someone that fights or someone behind the fighting lines and serve as a cook, porter, or spy. Another huge and terrifying problem today that is child soldiers are being used as sex slaves. Due to the fact that a high percentage of child soldiers are female, they are often sexually abused by male combats.(Child Recruitment and Use) Globally, the number of children recruited as soldiers is estimated between 250,000 and 300,000.("UN Campaigns To End Recruitment of Child Soldiers.") Although the UN has made countless policies and strategies to ban child soldiers, they have not been effective and the numbers continue to

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